Saturday, November 5, 2011

Describe your middle and/or high school. Was it a large or small student body? Is the school still in existence today? How has it changed since you went there?

For high school, I went to St. Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas. The school was founded in 1906 and was originally at 3901 Fannin near downtown Houston, but moved in 1963 to Sharpstown, about one mile from the house my family moved to in 1964.Here's how it looked when I graduated in 1975:

Illustration on the commencement invitation for the Class of 1975.

Here's how the school looks very today. Above left is the administrative wing, with a library addition (since I graduated) to its right. According to the school's virtual tour, this wing still has a beautiful foyer and the lovely chapel on the second floor. To the right is the new "Center for the Sciences and Student Services," a three-story building constructed in front of the old two-story student entrance and classroom wing (also to the right in the announcement engraving above).

The back side of the school has changed quite a bit. The photo of me below left was taken in the fall of 1972 behind the cafeteria. According to the campus map, the cafeteria has been enlarged a bit, and a new larger gym was built (part of it covering the location of the previous gym) in 1983. As the existing school site is landlocked with no room for expansion, an 18+ acre site one mile to the east was acquired about a year ago for a new athletic complex.I was pleased to see from the virtual tour that the classrooms in the two-story wing still look similar to the photo above right (of me in advanced freshman algebra in the winter of 1971-72), except of course blackboards have been replaced by whiteboards. There's still an auditorium (where our commencement was held) and art/music areas, and the courtyard is still there (with big trees now!). My graduating class had 119 students with about 600 in the school overall; today the school has an enrollment of about 850.